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"You look like shit," Lydecker said to Alec when the two X5s walked into the open garage area of the large dockside warehouse.

"I missed my beauty sleep," Alec deadpanned. "Got a crank call about three in the morning and couldn't doze off again. You know, one of those heavy breathers."

Lydecker smiled wryly. "Suck it up, soldier," he admonished. "Or have you forgotten all your training?"

"Not all of it," Alec replied levelly, his eyes zeroing coldly in on the colonel.

Clearing his throat, Lydecker turned to Max. "You're team leader on this one," he said.

"Why me?" she asked. She jerked a thumb at Alec. "He's the one who used to be your true blue soldier."

"Because I know damn well who's the boss of your little family," the colonel said with another snide smile. "He takes your orders. He pretty much always has. Best not to mess with the status quo."

Alec knew he probably ought to be insulted, but at the moment he was too damn tired to care. He shrugged. "Fine by me," he said. "What's the job?"

"Bodyguard," Lydecker said succinctly. He pulled a photograph out of a large manila envelope. "Savannah Stevens, age sixteen. Graduated high school at age nine, Cal Tech at twelve, two PHds. A real genius. She's been working in a commercial gene splicing lab for the past three years." He eyed the two transgenics. "Her speciality is recombinant DNA experimentation, splicing animal DNA to the human genome."

"Hasn't that already been done?" Max asked, not trying to hide the sarcasm.

"Not in the commercial world," Lydecker said. "The military isn't inclined to share its supersoldier secrets you know."

"Why does the kid need a bodyguard?" Alec asked, studying the photograph of a pretty young teenager with long curly red hair, big blue eyes, and freckles on her nose. She looked more like a cheerleader to him than a genius scientist -- but then looks could be deceiving as he well knew.

"I told you foreign nationals are getting extremely eager to advance their own supersoldier programs," Lydecker said. "Besides attempting to acquire a Manticore Unit, they're also going ahead with their own research into DNA splicing. Our undercover sources tell us that Miss Stevens is a prime target to be snatched. What she knows about genome configurations is worth a great deal to any one of several nations -- the Chinese, Koreans, Saudis, South Africans ... and more."

He reached into the envelope again and pulled out a brochure. "She's the keynote speaker at tomorrow's Genetic Research for the Future meeting. It's being held at the Mercer Building here in Seattle. Usually, her employers keep her pretty well guarded, but she'll be exposed at that meeting which is where you two come in. I want you to stick to her like glue and keep her from being snatched or harmed in any way." He tossed the folder to Max. "Look over the material then rendezvous with the subject in the morning. You have my number. Call me with any questions."

"I've got one already," Max said. "Does Miss Stevens know we're going to be her bodyguards?"

"Yes," Lydecker said.

"And does she know who we are?"

"Yes."

"Oh, really?" Alec said.

"The two of you have been all over the Seattle news for the past year," Lydecker said levelly. "You're celebrities."

"Then why not send a couple of your own 'kids'?" Alec pressed. "Someone more anonymous."

Lydecker glanced away, obviously uncomfortable. "My men are all out on assignment. This came up suddenly and I needed someone to pinch hit the job. You and Max are available, and already in the area."

Max didn't buy it. Neither did Alec. They both knew this had to be some kind of test, although Lydecker's motives, as always, were murky.

"All right," Max said. "We'll do it. Just give us the address and we'll go babysit your girl." She turned to Alec with a shrug. "Sounds easy enough, doesn't it?"

"Too easy," Alec said, his hazel eyes narrowed with suspicion. "There's gotta be a catch."

"No catch," Lydecker said. "Promise. Just make sure she makes it to the conference safely and then back home again afterwards. Security at her residence and workplace are sufficient. It's when she's in public that she's vulnerable."

*****

"Savannah's a pretty name," Max said as they stood way too early for Alec's liking the next morning on the front steps of a large ranch home in a suburb of Sector 10.

She reached out and rang the doorbell while Alec, hands in stuffed in the pockets of his grey leather jacket and rocking back on his heels, looked idly around. The Berrisford Mansion was located about half a mile away, he realized, placing their location in his mind. This was actually a wealthy area of Seattle, although the Stevenson home was modest in comparison with the neighboring houses.

There was the sound of scurrying feet inside the house, and a large dog began to bark on the other side of the door. It opened a crack, and a pair of vivid blue eyes peered out at them. "Are you my new bodyguards?" the girl asked, as she held onto the collar of a frantic German shepherd that was doing its best to charge through the small opening at them -- although whether with friendly enthusiasm or viciousness Alec couldn't tell.

Either way, the dog made him nervously back up a step, but Max held her ground.

"Savannah Stevenson?" Max inquired with a smile. She held out her hand. "I'm Max Guevera and this is Alec McDowell. We've been sent to escort you to the genetic's conference."

"Hush, Sadie!" the girl commanded, and the shepherd reluctantly but obediently ceased its yapping. "Sit!" The dog complied, although it continued to wriggle nervously, apparently intrigued by the scent of the newcomers. Savannah then swung the door open.

"Excuse me," Alec had to say. "Shouldn't you be askin' to see our I.D. or something? I mean, we are supposed to be protectin' you from bein' kidnapped, right? How do you know we're not the bad guys?"

With a grin that lit up her freckled face, Savannah pointed wordlessly up to a corner of the porch ceiling where a small but very sophisticated camera unit was pointed at them. "There's another one at the driveway entrance," she said, "and interspersed along the stone wall that lines the property. I saw you coming five minutes ago. You parked your motorcycles in some bushes across the road then walked up the drive. Guess that means we'll be taking my company car, although a bike ride would be fun." She reached to a table just inside the door and held up a file folder. "And Colonel Lydecker gave me your pictures so I'd know what you looked like."

"Our pictures?" Max said, dark eyebrows arching with surprise.

Savannah pulled out a pair of snapshots, one of Max taken from news footage and another of Alec at one of his city council sessions. Both were quite recent, but obviously obtained from the local media. Alec relaxed a little bit, worries about just how close old Lydecker was to them subsiding. Anyone could have produced those pictures.

Savannah opened the door wider and gestured for them to come inside. They walked directly into a living room that was joined to an open kitchen. The house, furnished with early American antiques and carpeted in a neutral tan, was actually a split level, stairs leading up to what were presumably bedrooms. (Alec's curiosity about where Savannah's security force might be was satisfied when he saw two burly guards watching them suspiciously from the upstairs landing.) The windows with their expensive mauve brocade drapes offered pleasant views of the grounds and surrounding woods. Autumn leaves just starting to turn shimmered gold and russet in the bright morning sunlight giving the setting a deceptively peaceful look. However, the scenery was somewhat marred by the ornate wrought iron security bars that covered all the panes. Although it looked like a typical suburban home at first glance, the X5 realized it was actually a prison ... or rather a fortress.

"Are you really a Manticore X5-Unit?" Savannah asked as soon as the door had closed behind them. The question was directed to Alec. Although she was being perfectly polite to Max, it was obvious the teenage girl had been instantly smitten by the handsome young male of the duo, her cheeks blushing red even as she asked, her words having the breathlessness of a teenager enamored of a rock star.

"No," Max said quickly, stepping forward and interrupting before Alec could answer. "He just plays one on T.V."

Savannah rolled her eyes at Max. "Oh please," she said. "I'm not a child. The colonel told me he was sending two of his best soldiers to guard me, and anyone with any kind of security clearance at all knows that Colonel Donald Michael Lydecker is high up in the ranks at New Manticore, and that he was practically the founder of the Old Manticore that developed the X Series soldiers."

"How do you know so much about it?" Alec asked, a bit floored by the girl's upfront knowledge and her lack of tact regarding what had once been one of the government's most classified secrets.

"Manticore's one of Genome Tomorrow's biggest customers," she said matter-of-factly, as if that explained everything -- which, come to think of it, Alec realized, it probably did.

"Genome Tomorrow?" Max said. "The company you work for?"

"Hey," Savannah said. "What can I say? They pay me well and the work's fascinating." She was eying Alec speculatively again. "You really do look human," she said, "even though I know what's under the hood. Your creators did a great job on the cosmetics ... suppressing the feline features and allowing the human ones to dominate.

Alec's mind suddenly flashed back to a long ago fight in a sewer with a panther woman and he blinked, humbly reminded that his own beauty had come at the expense of who knew how many others cruelly experimented on before him.

"You seem to know a lot about us," he said.

"I've studied the X series extensively," Savannah replied as she headed for the kitchen. "Do you guys want something to drink? Soda? Lemonade? Maybe some ice tea?" She grinned slyly. "A bowl of cream?"

"Where are your parents?" Max asked, not smiling at the joke, although she already knew that information from the girl's dossier.

"Dead," Savannah said, shrugging. "Didn't you read my file? Or do you just want to hear it in my own words? Trying to make conversation as it were."

"You live here alone?" Max said.

"I'm never alone," Savannah replied, nodding toward the two guards who were lounging against the far wall of the living room now keeping a close eye on their charge. "The Company sees to that. They gave me this house and everything." She held her arms out, indicating the surrounding grounds.

"What exactly do you do for them?" Alec asked.

"I discovered a better technique for splicing animal DNA into the human genome," Savannah said, sounding bored. Then she turned impish blue eyes up at Alec. "I know all your flaws," she added. "And your strengths." Then she batted her eyelashes at Max. "Do the seizures bother you guys much?"

Alec did a doubletake at that. So did Max.

"Sometimes," he said truthfully. "Why? Do you know how to fix 'em?"

Savannah shrugged again. "Wish I could help you guys, but no," she said. "They're a fatal flaw in your DNA matrix. They'll probably get worse as you get older, and one day they'll kill you." She frowned slightly. "My own creations will be a lot better than the two of you. The X9s won't have seizures, or the tendency to think too much for themselves either. They'll be much easier to control than your series."

"What are you talking about?" Max said. She wasn't smiling any more. "Are you telling me New Manticore is creating more supersoldiers?"

"Of course they are," Savannah said. "Why else would they hire my company and give me all the blueprints of the previous series."

"I thought those records were destroyed," Max tried, her worried eyes going to Alec's.

"Not all of them," Savannah said teasingly. She was rummaging in a closet, apparently looking for a coat. She found a corduroy jacket and turned around. "Remember I said I'd seen your matrix's? Fact of the matter is, you guys are really, really lucky. You wouldn't believe the number of X5s that were destroyed because they ended up deformed or defective in some way. There was one who even turned into a serial killer." She looked directly at Alec, her blue eyes no longer quite so girlish. "Your twin brother, I believe?"

"Ben had a hard life," Alec said, his voice clipped, for some reason feeling the need to defend his sibling. "Manticore was enough to make anyone crack."

"You didn't," Savannah pointed out. "Or at least you haven't yet."

"What do you mean?"

"That it could still happen to you," the girl said softly. "You could go insane." She turned her eyes on Max. "And you ... if you're ever thinking about having children, think again. Even with your special 'no junk DNA' make-up you carry all the fatal links in your regular genetics. Why pass that on to another generation? Better that people like me make better soldiers in test tubes rather than risking the whims of Mother Nature."

Max's mouth gaped open, not believing the audacity of this girl. "How dare you tell me--" she sputtered.

But Savannah darted forward and looped her arm through Alec's in a bold manner that caught both X5s completely off guard. "Just don't go getting ideas about living a long happy life as a family with him," she said, her grip tightening possessively. "The two of you will be lucky if you make it to thirty." Her voice had dropped as she said the words, but now she suddenly brightened again. "Hey, we better get going or we're gonna be late to the conference. I want to get there in plenty of time to show off my handsome escort." She beamed at Alec. "Even with all your sloppy DNA, you're still the hottest hunk I've ever had on a date."

"Hey, my DNA's not sloppy!" Alec argued as she pulled him out to the porch.

"And he's not your date!" Max snapped as she slammed the door behind them.